When Cheering For Your Child Goes Wrong

in today’s “bad policy” news …

In Florence, SC , a woman was arrested for cheering too loudly at her daughter’s high school graduation ceremony. Shannon Cooper was taken into custody for disorderly conduct during the Florence High School graduation ceremony at the Florence Civic Center.

According to Florence Police Chief Anson Shells, “The school district made an announcement and sent out letters to all of the parents for everyone to be as orderly as they can during the ceremony and so on and so forth. That was the rule.”

He also added, “She was disruptive during the ceremony and ceremonies are considered solemn occasions. Everybody wants to hear their child’s name called and everyone was asked to be respectful and to be quiet.”

Of course Ms. Cooper was surprised that she was arrested, claiming that she was not cheering louder than any other parent and couldn’t believe that she was being arrested for expressing her joy for her daughter. But according to reports, she was asked to quiet down by security more than once, and got louder instead until police finally arrested her.

This story made the rounds across cyberspace, The Talk, even Anderson Cooper. Some folks felt this was an excessive use of authority during a joyous occasion meant to celebrate the accomplishment of graduating high school. It could be, but prior to the graduation, school officials asked families to hold their applause until after ALL graduates were called.

The senior class this year even made a personal plea to crowd to be respectful or be asked to leave. But as usual, some of our black folks can’t resist touching the hot stove and then act surprised when they get burned. I wasn’t there personally, but knowing how some of our people act, I can use my deductive reasoning, logical skills, and over-active imagination to transcribe what happened.

According to one witness, “I was sitting next to a couple from Charleston who was there to see a family member and when her name was called, they couldn’t hear anything because the one who graduated before her were still making a lot of noise around us, so they were very agitated”.

I understand that you are proud of your loved one graduating, but the rules were expressed on more than one occasion. Shut up until everybody’s name is called. And what are you teaching your child by your actions, it’s ok to not follow clearly established rules and you can be disruptive and disrespectful to others with your actions? Your actions take away from a momentous moment.

This is nothing to really be excited about, but just be glad your child is one of the ones that did it. And act like you have some class, people already stereotype black folks as always being loud and ignorant acting.